[governance] For you as an Internet user, what is a "Critical Internet resource"?

[kwasi boakye-akyeampong]

Veni,
   
  You summmed it all up in the following:
   
  "When you have hot water 24x7, you don't even think about the people who have never had hot water, or for the ones, who have limited access to water. Do you want to bet that for some of the people on the list from the West/North part of the world water is not among the critical resources of their everyday life; and if you ask them what's critical for them, you may find out answers like "how much gas my car spends", or "there is not enough parking space in the downtown area of the city", or "my favorite skim milk", etc. And they will be right - for them these are critical."

  Cheers,
  Kwasi

Veni Markovski <veni at veni.com> wrote:
  Hi, Jeremy and all. 

You are quoting the WGIG Background Report, but see the beginning of that same document: 


1.         This Background Report accompanies and is complementary to the Report of the Working Group on Internet Governance (The WGIG Report). It includes much of the work produced in the course of the Working Group process and reflects the wide variety of opinions held within the group as well as many comments made by stakeholders during the consultation process. The Background Report does not have the same status as the WGIG Report, which is a short consensus document for policy makers. However, the Background Report can be used as a reference in that it provides a summary of the process and various issue papers, with some additional thoughts and considerations about potential solutions for issues not covered in detail in the WGIG Report. If not every member of the group agrees with every word, they all agree with this approach and the Background Report makes clear whether an argument or opinion is shared by the entire group or only by some of its members.


  It is not by accident that the WGIG report is the official document, and this is the Background Report. In the UN world every detail is important, and you can pick more of the words in the above mentioned paragraph to see it for yourself. 

Perhaps some think that it is much more fun to discuss issues where there's controversy (you don't believe me? then think that the tabloids have bigger circulation than the serious newspapers), but at ISOC-Bulgaria (and in Bulgaria in general) we understand quite well that if we want to achieve something, we need to focus on the things that unite us, not on the ones which divide us. 

In the current discussion for example we see that, yet again, people with North/West thinking (and that does not eliminate Australia:-) have different understanding of what's critical for the Internet. It is understandable - when you have high-speed Internet at home, and thousands of wi-fi spots all over the country, and sometimes whole cities, which are with wi-fi, provided by the municipality, of course that for you the perspective is different. 

When you have hot water 24x7, you don't even think about the people who have never had hot water, or for the ones, who have limited access to water. Do you want to bet that for some of the people on the list from the West/North part of the world water is not among the critical resources of their everyday life; and if you ask them what's critical for them, you may find out answers like "how much gas my car spends", or "there is not enough parking space in the downtown area of the city", or "my favorite skim milk", etc. And they will be right - for them these are critical. 

When Paul was asking the question, it is also interesting to see the responses, and the way they were given. We don't believe one can have a discussion with people who already have an opinion on something. Once they have an opinion, they are not going to change it, therefore the discussion will be only for the sake of the discussion, not to achieve something fruitful. 

Best,
Veni


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